Samsung will take little comfort from Apple’s performance next door. In China, Apple recently grabbed the lead in the smartphone market for the first time, according to Canalys, due to the popularity of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In Japan, it has been dominant since 2012, according to MM Research Institute, which puts Apple’s share at 57 percent during the April to September period of 2014, more than Sharp and Sony combined.

The semiconductor division was a bright spot as Samsung posted fourth-quarter operating profit of 5.3 trillion won ($4.88 billion), in line with the 5.2 trillion won profit the firm guided for earlier this month.

Amazon just released its fiscal Q4 2014 earnings, reporting $29.33 billion in revenue, $214 million in net profit representing $0.45 per share. According to CNBC/Thomson Reuters , analysts expected the company to report earnings of $0.17 per share on $29.67 billion in revenue. While the company largely beat the expectations on earnings, it fell a bit short on revenue.

Giphy — the betaworks-backed platform for searching and sharing gifs — has just raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst and previous investors such as Lerer-Hippeau, betaworks, RRE Ventures, and CAA Ventures. A chunk of the round, $225k, is being raised through the Alphaworks equity crowdfunding platform.

In October Time Warner said it would make HBO available as a stand-alone service to broadband customers in 2015, making it easier to gain access to the premium cable network’s signature programs without having to also buy a larger cable package. Broadcast-network CBS has moved even faster, launching its “All Access” subscription-video service in the same month, which makes current and classic programming, with a few restrictions, available for a monthly fee of $5.99.

An issue with Apple’s iTunes Connect service , which lets developers upload new versions of their apps to the App Store and track sales and income, is causing some developers to log into the wrong accounts this morning.

Yahoo has been in talks with Apple about search for years , but the stars could align in 2015 for two reasons: Google’s search contract with Apple is reportedly fulfilled this year, and Yahoo is in the midst of renegotiating its 10-year search partnership with Microsoft. This year would be the first time since 2010 that Apple would be able to choose another default search partner over Google.

Google reported its third-quarter earnings after close of market today, offering up gross revenue of $18.10 billion, revenue net of traffic acquisition costs (ex-TAC) of $14.5 billion, and non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $6.88, with GAAP EPS of $6.91.

Nintendo updated Super Smash Bros. for Wii U today, adding new levels to the game upon which fans can kick the crap out of their loved ones. The update gives players 15 new levels for free, each one for the game's eight-player Smash mode. Nintendo of Japan listed the new stages on its site:
Normal:
Mario Circuit (X)
Luigi's Mansion
Pyrosphere
Norfair
Lylat Cruise
Pokemon Stadium 2
Animal Crossing: Town and City
Animal Crossing: Smashville
Wii Fit studio
Omega:
Mario Galaxy
Mario Circuit (X)
Kirby: The Great Cave Offensive
Lylat Cruise
Pokemon Stadium 2
Town and City
The publisher revealed its latest sales numbers this week, noting that the Wii U's lifetime sales reached 9.2 million consoles. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U sold 3.39 million copies by the end of 2014, topped only by Mario Kart 8 's 4.77 million units as the system's best seller last year.
Update: Thanks to a translation error on Nintendo of Japan's page, some of the stages were incorrectly named. We've updated the list.
[Image: Nintendo] Amiibo (Super Smash Bros. - May)

The move itself makes a lot of sense; while Sky is primarily known for its TV services in the UK, it also offers broadband and landline telephone services, as well as a number of digital offerings available to its customers via mobiles and tablets. Once this service is ready, it will be able to compete with rivals like Virgin Media, which already offers a ‘quad-play’ bundle that includes mobile options.

Just by a hair's breadth, mind you. I felt like the villains this season were pretty inspired and formidable. The one-two-three punch of Twisty, Dandy, and Stanley helped give the Freak Show season a cruel streak that Coven seemed to lack (Kathy Bates' Delphine LaLaurie was mostly played for laughs and the witch hunters were wound up being a non-issue). Where Freak Show faltered the most (though there's still plenty more to gripe about) is that, despite having a large ensemble, it still didn't have enough story to fill 13 episodes. It never should have extended into 2015. 10 episodes would have been great. Eight would have been even better.

The songs that fill the tavern at Skyhold are now yours for the downloading, for free until February 9, when they will be sold on "popular digital platforms," BioWare says. The download includes sheet music, as well.
"If you've indulged in the opportunity at Skyhold's tavern to enjoy a break from the demons and Venatori, chances are you've heard some of the bard's lovely songs," BioWare writes . "Although bards do perform to entertain travelers, they also serve a greater purpose: to carry the tales of triumph and tragedy across the land. We've received many inquiries from our fans asking where they can get these songs, and we're thrilled that you're enjoying them as much as we do."
The tavern songs from Dragon Age: Inquisition are performed by Elizaveta and written by Hollywood composer Raney Shockne.
[Image: BioWare]

The new transparency report reveals a total of 55 government requests for user information in 2014. Reddit complied with 58 percent of that total, which included forking over account registration data, log data, and content uploaded by users. And U.S. state and federal government requests saw an even higher rate of compliance; 64 percent of inquiries resulted in user data being turned over.

Samsung’s share is dropping in part because of competition from Apple at the high-end of the market, but a more serious concern is competition in the larger low- and mid-range markets from Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE. The three Chinese makers are improving their offerings, delivering better-quality handsets at competitive prices, and consumers are buying them.

And not just any kids. Popular kids. Swipe uses an ingenious invite system where occasionally rather than a photo, you’ll see a card that says “[A friend’s name] has 52 friends on Swipe but has not joined yet. Do you want to send an invite? :) ” Swiping right sends an invitation via SMS. “The way our invite system works, it goes to the most connected people first. So all the cool kids are on it,” Roushdy tells me.

On the positive end, a boom in Samsung's high-margin chip sales helped offset the downturn in its mobile business. Its semi-conductor division's operating profit jumped almost 36% in the final quarter of 2014.

The web-based platform seems to work much like the app, but includes a few new features, too. It syncs with the mobile app to keep track of the delivery status in real time, and merchants can now link their websites to Postmates. An anonymous shopping option lets customers add personal items to their cart without feeling embarrassed.

Both Mashable and Business Insider are expected to announce significant venture capital investments Thursday, building on a recent trend of hefty cash infusions and valuations for the sector’s biggest players.

The initial designs have a foreboding kind of beauty, an atmospheric choice that was intentional says Snøhetta. “In a certain way there have always been dark clouds hanging over media houses,” says Kjetil Thorsen, Co-Founder of Snøhetta. Journalism has always been a turbulent trade, especially so today with the perpetual strain for readers’ eyeballs, crumbling business models and recent violent attacks on journalists. Despite the metaphorical (and literal) clouds, Larsen is quick to say Le Monde is an optimistic building.

If you walk through the heart of Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, you’ll find a rather imposing two-story mural painted by artist Brian Barnecio. It looks like a massive totem pole filled with abstract shapes that resemble lips and eyeballs and boxes of ping-pong balls, and in the middle of it all, there’s a single word: “hack.”

Facebook is in the middle of an ongoing battle to make sure it always surfaces useful, relevant content in your News Feed — which is what makes a new feature the company is piloting a bit of a risk. As of today, Facebook users in New York City will be able to test out a new feature called Place Tips. Assuming you have location services enabled, the Facebook app will try to guess when you’re in a popular or interesting location and surface relevant tips, photos, and posts from the place in question.

Octavia’s big fight scene with that Grounder was completely brutal and completely riveting. The predictable thing would have been for Octavia to surprise everyone and best him in the end, using a tactic no one – including her foe – saw coming. Instead, the scene turned into a highly emotional and moving display of someone who would not back down but simply could not win. Her tiny moments of offense were notable, but overall, she suffered a nasty beat down, and yet she kept getting back up. You couldn’t say she went the distance, a la Rocky, given how little she was able to hurt her foe, but she certainly showed she had courage to spare. The fact that The 100 has been able to credibly take her from that girl jumping off the ship, screaming, “We’re back, bitches!” in the pilot, to this tough young woman is a testament to the show.

“LibreOffice 4.4 has got a lot of UX and design love, and in my opinion is the most beautiful ever,” says Jan “Kendy” Holesovsky, a member of the Membership Committee and the leader of the design team. “We have completed the dialog conversion, redesigned menu bars, context menus, toolbars, status bars and rulers to make them much more useful. The Sifr monochrome icon theme is extended and now the default on OS X. We also developed a new Color Selector, improved the Sidebar to integrate more smoothly with menus, and reworked many user interface details to follow today’s UX trends.”

After three months of waiting, Microsoft Office will officially launch for Android tablets today, bringing Word, PowerPoint and Excel to these midsize devices. The apps work much like the iOS versions, letting you create and edit documents, presentations and spreadsheets that will sync with OneDrive so you can work from anywhere.

A good video game sequel shakes things up. A good video game sequel changes the established formula set by the previous game by adding a new gameplay mechanic or story element. Every year hundreds of games are released and if each game doesn't do something new or daring, they are likely to quickly pass by. Why would I buy a sequel to a game that doesn't change anything up and is merely just a new coat of paint on an old product?

He joins Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking in suggesting that the march of AI could be an existential threat to humans. The former Microsoft boss gave his opinion during his latest Ask Me Anything (AMA) interview on the Reddit networking site.

While this spectrum auction turned out to be much larger than most of the industry anticipated, it didn't get the same attention bestowed upon the 700MHz auction in 2008, where Google famously bid in attempts to drive the price up and force the FCC to require open-access provisions for those that won. Still to come is the incentive auction for the 600MHz airwaves, which used to carry broadcast TV signals. The lower frequency of those airwaves, which make it easier to cover large swaths of land, will certainly draw a lot of attention from the wireless carriers.

Here’s a 40-hour time lapse video of the snow falling and piling up on the roof deck of IDG’s headquarters in downtown Boston, 16 stories up, shot and edited by IDG News Service video reporter Nick Barber. Don’t worry, Nick didn’t stand on the roof the entire time. He had a GoPro camera set up inside, programmed to take one picture every 30 seconds between Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Roughly 4,800 images were captured. In the resulting video, the snow comes to life, taking on a wave effect as it creeps up the glass windows of a nearby conference room, rising as the sky changes colors. Coupled with the ambient music, the video plays like a dream.

is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 40 million unique visitors worldwide and 20 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.

Jawbone, the company behind the UP24 , UpMove and UP3 fitness trackers, has launched a partner marketplace in the US aimed at drawing together the best apps, devices and other integrations available across the Jawbone ecosystem..

At any rate, Su's "horse" -- which took two months to build -- is a little more complex. It stands 1.5 metres high and two metres long, weighing in at 250 kilograms. It uses a recycled go-kart engine, which runs on petrol, powering the spring-loaded legs to move back and forth. Only the back legs propel the horse, though; the front is supported by wheels, and the front legs appear to move only for show.

One of the greatest media experiments of the 1930s and 40s was the faxpaper. Almost entirely forgotten today, it was a technology that could deliver newspapers over the radio waves, then print them instantly right in your home.

A limited number of Gear VR devices will be available to passengers on select Qantas’ A380 flights and inside the First Class Lounge in Sydney to try, alongside a specially developed Qantas app running on the Note 4 inside the device.

The current generation of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that we all know and love (or hate) in our smartphones can be traced back to 1991, when Sony began commercializing the first lithium-ion batteries. These batteries still rely on graphite-based anodes–the part of the battery where the positive electric charge flows. The problem is that the graphite anodes are very limited with how much power they can store.

On the heels of a $51 million round of funding, cloud collaboration company Huddle today announced a changing of the guard to lead the company to its next stage. Co-founder Alastair Mitchell is stepping down from his role as CEO and assuming a new position as president and CMO. Taking his place is Morten Brogger, a veteran exec whose past roles included CEO of Mach, which he helped sell to Syniverse for $715 million in 2013.

Samsung Electronics reported its lowest annual profit since 2011 during its earnings call today as its smartphone sales continue to suffer from increasing competition. In 2014, the company’s profit was 25 trillion won, a 32 percent drop from a high of 36.8 trillion won in 2013.

is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 40 million unique visitors worldwide and 20 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.

RunKeeper's latest 5.2 update, released a few days ago on the App Store, means users with Spotify Premium subscriptions can sign in to their accounts and play music through the fitness app. To access the streaming service through RunKeeper you'll need to download both it and Spotify, before following RunKeeper's steps for connecting the two apps together. Once set up, users can access their own self-made playlists, or rely on Spotify's existing list of workout playlists to keep themselves motivated while out exercising.

Exposure, one of the more recent special effects photo apps to arrive on the iOS platform, seeks to step away from the technique of merely applying filters in favor of custom editing discrete parts of your photos. This encourages more originality by letting users to pick and choose which filters they want to use and where to place them in order to best emphasize critical parts of a scene.

Mashable announced late Wednesday night that it has closed a new round of financing worth $17 million, led by Time Warner Investments — the venture-capital arm of the New York-based media conglomerate — and Business Insider is close to announcing its own new round of funding, said to be worth $25 million and led by German media giant Axel Springer, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal . These investments come not long after a series of large financing deals for both BuzzFeed, which raised a total of $50 million led by Andreessen Horowitz, and Vice Media — which raised $500 million by selling a $250-million stake in the company to A&E Networks (a joint venture between Disney and Hearst) and a similar-sized stake to the venture-capital fund Technology Crossover Ventures.

Gross merchandise volume (GMV), or the sum of all Alibaba's online commerce transactions, rose 49 percent to $127 billion. Mobile GMV continued to grow, accounting for 42 percent of total GMV, up from 36 percent in the September quarter.

The semiconductor division's profit stood at 2.7 trillion won, its highest in more than four years, helping Samsung recover from a 60 percent drop in operating profit in the third quarter. Samsung said it saw healthy demand for memory chips, used in servers and handsets including Apple iPhones, as well as improved sales from its system chips business.